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Human Rights Groups Sound Alarm over Extradition Evidence

As reported in the Ottawa Citizen, three human rights organizations – Amnesty International, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association – have filed interventions with the Ontario Court of Appeal, expressing their deep concerns about Hassan Diab’s case.

In its written intervention, Amnesty says extraditing a person to face a trial where evidence gleaned from torture could be introduced violates Canada’s obligations under international law.

“The Minister of Justice should refuse extradition where there is a real risk that torture-derived evidence would be used at trial,” it says.

In its comments on the handwriting evidence, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association notes that there is “a substantial body of evidence” that questions its reliability and Maranger’s decision to allow it to stand has “far-reaching implications” for Canadian law.

“Bitter experience has demonstrated that unreliable evidence can take many forms and occasion much injustice,” it says. “Over the past 25 years Canada’s growing platoon of the wrongfully convicted has exposed the risk of unreliable evidence occasioning miscarriages of justice.”